Married to a Ghost
by Golden Lunar Eclipse
Summary: Title pretty much sums it up, except that there’s a twist. But, I’ll give you one more piece of vital information, it’s a Danny x Sam pairing. Enjoy and revel in the angstyness of it! Please R & R.


Married to a Ghost

Skulker, Technus, the Box Ghost, it really didn't matter anymore _who_ I was sending back to the Ghost Zone. They weren't much of a challenge as they once used to be when I was a kid. Yet for some reason they were _still_ able to escape and come to terrorize people. Something inside me feels this might have to do with Plasmius, but for now I'll let it slide. I don't want to get home too late for my missus.

Sam was gorgeous on our wedding day. Everything was perfect. She, of course, went against traditions and wore a long black veil over her purple wedding dress, and we held the ceremony in a graveyard. I know. Lovely. But it really was! I mean, what better place to get married than a graveyard? It was peaceful, it was different, and best part was, ghosts don't generally hang around graveyards, so we weren't disturbed and I didn't have to "disappear".

We were made for each other, it seems. I don't know when exactly it happened, and neither does she, but we fell in love. Perhaps we'd always been in love. We were everything to each other; best friends, lovers, and now partners for life. Well, actually, partners for eternity.

Everyone thinks I'm crazy, or that I'm in denial, too wound up with grief to move on. But no one knows, none of them understand, except Tucker, and even he's against me! He says she's different, that she's not the Sam I married. And even ghosts like Ember have the nerve to insult me about her, although, they think I'm a hypocrite.

I decide to stop on my way home. It was a random decision on my part, but I need a few more moments to think. I'm in the graveyard where we were married, and I'm floating above the spot where she was buried. Sam had died in a mugging, and I wasn't there to save her. It happened so quick, it was such a shock. But she became a ghost and I found her again when she appeared by my side in the Ghost Zone and helped me fight off Walker. I brought her back home, I was so happy. So was she. She said that she was hoping that I'd come, that she wanted to be with me.

Things are a little different now, of course. When I get home, I'm no longer Danny Fenton and she's not Sam Fenton. We're the Phantoms, Danny and Sam Phantom, and it works for us. We still do most of the things we used to do, and some things are even better now that we both have ghost powers…

But, I'll admit, there are some things that are hard to deal with. Sam can be her normal self most times, but there are other times when she scares me. She becomes one of those raging, angry, monster type ghosts and it takes me forever to calm her down again. And it's been happening a little more often lately, it seems for longer each time…

My parents, who still don't know I'm a halfa, think that I have an enraged spirit haunting my place and they're desperate to come in and rid me of it. They don't know the half of it, and I'm not letting them in. And now they think I'm possessed too, but I don't care. I still have Sam, and that's all that matters. I haven't lost her forever, she's still with me, and now I know, I will never lose her.

_Samantha Fenton_

_1990-2013_

_Beloved friend, daughter, wife_

_Unique in every way possible_

_She will be missed_

That's what's on her gravestone. All of it's true, except for the missing her part. I still _have_ her.

Speaking of which, I really should get back, or else I _will_ find an angry spirit leering at me from the doorway in my wife's form.

I fly back to our home and glide in through the front door.

"Sam? I'm home. How're things doing here?"

It's oddly quiet for some reason and I get chills up my spine. Chills for a ghost, now that's strange…

"Sam?"

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!"

Uh-oh. Monster mode.

"I was out doing my job, you know that!"

"FIGHTING GHOSTS? LIKE _ME_?"

"Look," I yell back grabbing the front of my suit. "I'm a ghost too! I'm just putting them back where they belong, it's nothing to get upset over!"

Oops, wrong choice of words. I cover my head in anticipation of another barrage of screams from my wife. But that doesn't happen. Instead Sam has shrunk back into her normal size and speaks to me with a tired and sad voice.

"You're right, Danny. You always are when it comes to ghosts. Except when it comes to me. Don't you see, Danny? Don't you see it at all? Even I can tell."

"What are you saying?" I ask, completely perplexed.

"Danny, don't make me say it, I don't know what I'll do. You can control your ghost powers because you are _not_ a ghost. But I, well… I'm dead Danny. That's the truth."

"What? So what if you're dead! You're still here! You're still with me! And I love you! That's all that matters! I know you still love me too, otherwise, you wouldn't be here!"

Sam turns away and floats into the kitchen. I follow. There's a place that's set for me at the table, but she passes it by and reaches for the phone.

"I'm calling, Tucker. I haven't talked to him for ages."

I don't know what to answer. I watch her dial the number, listen to it for a moment, then speak.

"Hi, Tucker?" Pause. "Yes, this is Sam. I know, I know, sorta weird to be getting calls from the dead – it's like a horror movie or something." She laughs, and I think Tucker is laughing too. "Look, I need your help here. I want to talk to Danny, but I can't. I know you know what it is that I want to say, so if it isn't too much trouble, could you –?" Pause. "Great! See you soon!"

Sam hangs up the phone and faces me. I stare back at her disbelievingly. Since when have we had trouble saying what's on our minds to each other? I go close to hold her, and she backs away into the counter. Literally. She closes her eyes and bows her head.

"I love you, Danny," she whispers. "But this is so hard."

I know not to say anything, and we wait in an uncomfortable silence for several long minutes, until the doorbell rings. I go to answer it. I feel Sam floating close behind me.

"Hey, Tucker," I greet my friend.

He steps in and replies, "Hey, Danny. Hi Sam. So, I'm here now."

"We noticed," Sam remarks sarcastically, regaining a bit of the humor I love about her.

We head to the living room and sit down. Tucker turns to Sam and asks, "You're sure you're ready for this?"

"I've been ready for this for a long time, I just didn't realize it till now."

"What's going on?" I interrupt, unable to contain myself any longer. "What's wrong Sam? What can I do to make it better?"

A tear glides down her cheek as she looks into my eyes. All those years flash before me, when we were children playing in the park, when we went to high school and I got my ghost powers, when I scraped close to death and she was there for me, when I almost killed her and my entire family, when we started to go out in college, when I asked her to marry me… she rarely ever cried. A sudden thought struck me. Could I be doing this to her?

"Danny, I know we've been a bit at odds lately," Tucker starts, "but I've always had your best interests at heart." Sam stifles a snicker to this comment. "Ok, I've nearly always had your best interests at heart. Well, in any case, if I hadn't, Sam always has."

I nod, a flicker of a smile coming to my face.

"But the thing is, Danny," Tucker continues, "you're hurting both Sam and yourself, not to mention how you've been acting towards the rest of us lately."

"But I –"

"No, wait, let me finish, because this is really important." He takes a breath, and I can see the anticipation clearly lit in his mind. "Sam is… Sam told me… she can't, Danny."

I think I'm starting to understand, but what Tucker says still doesn't make sense. What is wrong with Sam? What have I done to her?

"It's time for her –"

"It's time for me to move on," Sam states. And in a rush she begins, "I didn't know at first why I was floating around in the Ghost Zone, and then I remembered I had died, and then you came. I was so happy to see you, I felt closer to completion. I wasn't sure what 'completion' it was that I was looking for. But I know now. I stayed here because of you, because I love you. I wanted to make sure you would get along alright without me. I can't leave until I am assured of that." Her voice is growing steadily quieter. She looks to Tucker again.

"Danny, she's like a prisoner here, she's not meant for here, ghosts are trapped in between life and death and it's time she moved on to experience the freedoms of death, of whatever lies beyond." I'm sure Tucker is repeating stuff she told him. It sounds more like her. He looks me in the eye and says seriously, "The mugging wasn't your fault, Danny."

A little explosion occurs in my head.

"I WASN'T THERE FOR HER WHEN SHE NEEDED ME MOST!" I suddenly roar. Whoa, where did that come from? "I wasn't there to save her. I wasn't there for her and she died because of it." I'm starting to break down, I try to hold in my sobs. "I'm so sorry, Sam, I never wanted to see you hurt. I, I'm so sorry…"

Sam's arms are gently wrapped around me and I can't hold it in any longer. I am crying into her shoulder and she delicately rubs my back.

"I don't want to lose you again," I mumble weakly.

"You never did, Danny. I'll always love you, and I'll always be with you in your heart. But, you need to let me go now. It's too painful staying, and it's tearing you apart."

"I c-can't," I stammer in between sniffles.

"Yes you can, for both of you," Tucker encourages.

The moment I have dreaded since I learned of Sam's death has arrived, and I'm still as afraid of it as ever. I have to come to terms with her death. Oh, why couldn't we just live happily as ghosts? Another voice in my mind answers that; _because ghosts aren't happy beings_. I become aware of the fact that I'm on my feet and pacing. I stop and turn to face my two best friends.

"You're right," I finally hear myself admit. "Both of you. I think I knew all along, but I wanted to deny it, desperately. If you had never been a part of my life, I don't know who I'd be today. You have given me so much and I could never repay you."

"You don't have to," Sam interrupts. "You gave me a lot too. My life was so much better just knowing you, Danny. I am grateful for the time we spent together."

I feel a tugging at my heart, but I try to ignore it. I don't want to hear what it's saying, because I already know what it means. I'm going to be strong one more time, for her. Sam glides towards me and I take her into my arms. We embrace as tears silently slide down my face. I kiss her as hard as I can. Opening my eyes, I move back a little and take her hands.

"I'm ready," I tell her uncertainly.

"So am I," she says blissfully.

"I will be alright." And this time I mean it, truthfully. I know now that I will be alright, it will just take a little time.

She smirks at me one more time. "'Course you will, Danny. You always pull through."

A moment we just stand there and stare into each other's eyes.

"I love you," she says.

"I love you," I whisper back.

There's a light around her, and her form is starting to fade. The space which she fills is becoming transparent. She has closed her eyes, and now a smile is on her lips. She is gone an instant later.

My house looks different all of a sudden; like it's a hollow, empty place. And my heart feels like a wound has been reopened, bleeding again, fresh blood, from the place where she belonged. I turn to Tucker and detransform into Danny Fenton again.

"Thanks for being here, Tucker. I really appreciate it," I speak feeling a bit guilty with the way I've been treating him lately.

"No problem, man. That's what friends are for."

"I'm going to miss her, you know?"

"I know. So am I."

"But, she's in a better place now. I'll be alright."

Tucker starts to head towards the door, and I follow him.

"Hey, Danny?"

"Yah?"

"Do you want to come over to my place tonight? I'm sure Valerie wouldn't mind having a guest for dinner."

"No, that's ok. I think I should probably see how my folks are doing. I think I owe them some gratitude in the very least for trying to stick by me. I know I've been hard to be around lately."

"Yah, but we all knew you'd start to heal soon enough. Come on, I'll give you a ride to their place."

"Thanks."

I turn around once more to glance at my bare house. I shoot a small ectoblast at the light switch by the kitchen and hit my target. I turn off the rest of the lights by hand near the front door. Tucker is waiting for me on the stoop, and I join him outside, closing the door behind me.

Sam, you were the most wonderful person I have ever met. Everything about you, from your quirky habits, to your love of originality, from vegetarianism to dark poetry, you were a beloved friend, an amazing wife. You were unique in every way possible. And you will be missed, I can guarantee that. But I won't hurt anymore. I have let you go.

-(-)-

_Samantha Fenton_

_1990-2013_

_Beloved friend, daughter, wife_

_Unique in every way possible_

_She will be missed_

-(-)-


End file.
